What Is Packaging Design

Packaging design is the process of expanding brand graphics and applying it to any number and sort of bags, boxes, coverings – packaging – necessary to accompany the presentation and sale of a product. Packaging can also include instructions for store displays, shipping, and the use of the product. Product packaging serves as brand ambassadors for your products in-store, in the absence of a salesperson actively introducing and promoting them. Packaging design can make or break a sale.

Importance of Branding Before Packaging Design

It is a common assumption that packaging design is just laying out information creatively to attract buyers’ attention. While this could work in the short term, truly effective and impactful packaging designs best capture and communicate a brand’s identity. Otherwise, a conventionally attractive packaging design will only garner a short-lived curiosity toward a product, which will not trigger continued interest, connection, and loyalty to a brand. That is why doing a branding exercise before creating packaging is crucial.

A brand identity consists of many variables like the brand name, logo, tagline, brand colours, and visual aesthetic style that shows its personality, online and offline. A well-crafted brand identity will inform a brand of the following steps for marketing and promotional material, including packaging design.

Branding is a forward-thinking exercise that prioritises continued success through revenue or other means. The first step in the process is strategic work along the lines of market research and brand auditing. The insights learned from strategic work inform the creative work, which is compiled in a brand guide that details all the design features and assets that collectively give a brand its distinct identity. This brand guide is an essential toolkit for all company employees, especially designers, marketers, and even new team members. It is a reference to remind them to stay consistent with the brand’s identity and promote it accurately.

Want to Bring Your Brand Identity to Life?

Strong brand identity provides the foundation for all marketing and promotional materials, including packaging design. Before wanting a packaging design that makes an impact, your brand needs to find its voice first. Your brand’s unique voice will reach your customers.

Why is Product Packaging Important?

Good packaging creates an emotional connection between consumer and brand, which increases the likelihood of a purchase made. Furthermore, effective product packaging is critical to the success of any product since 72% of shoppers will make a purchase based on how the product looks (people do judge books by their covers!).

Benefits of Hiring Professional Packaging Designers

Pretty packaging can attract and add value to your product, but good professionals will also consider lifestyle factors and target markets when designing your product’s packaging. Moreover, if you’re trying to achieve specific marketing objectives (e.g. creating in-trend products), then working with professional designers is critical to ensure that you get great results.

Approach To Creative Packaging Design in Singapore

At Packaging Design Agency, we take pride in our hands-on approach to packaging design. The process starts by immersing ourselves in the world of your products and target markets and ends with a custom-designed product that really delivers. We believe that great design is the central ingredient for everything we do. Our knowledge and experience will help you achieve good results.

The Process of Developing an Effective Packaging Design

When developing creative packaging designs, Packaging Design Agency works closely with clients to ensure they get exactly what they want. The process typically involves three main stages: research, concept development, and refinement and finalization.

Research

Before providing packaging design ideas, we always start by researching your current (and if applicable, future) target markets to fully understand the consumer’s needs and wants, along with their lifestyle factors.

Concept Development

After research comes the creative process of developing concepts for your product’s packaging. We can provide our clients with a range of creative packaging designs to choose from so they can select the best option suited to their product based on style, messaging or overall feel.

Refinements & Finalisation

Once you’ve chosen a concept, it goes through several rounds of revisions until you’re completely satisfied with all aspects of the design – including any copy, imagery and graphics.

This leads you to the last step: design finalisation. Basically, after the designer prepares the necessary files, the packaging design is ready to be sent to a manufacturing or printing facility, and launched!

New Trends & Packaging Ideas

Food + Drink packaging designs are often the most creative product packaging designs we see today, with a lot of consideration put into how food looks on social media platforms like Instagram or Snapchat. The box design is another area where creative designers are breaking new ground with aesthetically pleasing designs outside the box. Creative packaging ideas are also finding their place in retail stores where unique concepts can help engage consumers and establish brand identities. Then, there are other types of packages that have become part of our everyday lives that we often take for granted (e.g. toothpaste, shampoo, and cereal boxes).